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Comment by koolba | Hacker News Reader

> The Free Trial Card is a virtual credit card you can use to sign up for free trials of any service anonymously, instead of using your real credit card. When the free trial period ends, the card automatically declines to be charged, thus ending your free trial. You don’t have to remember to cancel anything.

That’s not how it works. Just because they can’t bill your card does not mean you’re not on the hook. Anybody that’s forgotten about a gym membership on a expired card knows this first hand. Only reason they won’t go after you is that the LTV and PR isn’t worth it. If it is, they will.

> As he sees it, companies that require you to put in a credit card in order to sign up for a free trial are engaging in deceptive practices.

There’s nothing deceptive about it if the price is disclosed. Far from it. On the sell side it also has the advantage of filtering out people who cannot or would not pay for the service early on.

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I believe in Quebec it's illegal to automatically turn a free trial into a subscription via credit card. I'd love to see that law proliferate elsewhere.

Sometimes I wonder if everything is illegal or void in Quebec. That is all I see on sweepstakes/lottery tickets, backside of boxes, warranty cards, etc.

How do companies typically implement this? Do they not offer free trials to Quebec residents, or charge for the trial, or offer a free trial that automatically ends?

Here's an example:

> After your free trial, Amazon Prime is just CDN$ 79.00/year (plus any applicable taxes). Cancel anytime. Quebec residents receive an initial 13-month membership for CDN$ 79.00, instead of a free trial.

They just don't call it a "free one month trial". Instead they say "sign up and get an extra month free". Which is basically what the "free trial" is if you fail to cancel it.

Which I think is more than a moot point. It's more honest, and it opens up a category for companies who genuinely want to offer a "one month free trial" that doesn't require a credit card and auto subscription.

My experience as SaaS provider is those who use virtual credit cards "for free trials of any service anonymously" also use fake names and anonymous email providers like 10minutemail.

I was just asking down thread what cases exist to block prepaid cards if sufficient funds are available. Seems like I've found my answer; for you then it seems like this removes a lot of the customer retention/customer engagement cruft?

Yeah the gym people from la fitness hounded me for years after 21 year old me thought I could just let it expire and they would auto cancel

For sure it won't works for every kind of service, but we are talking about a free trial over a prepaid service. Once you no longer pay, you no longer have the service. It's not a debt.

For an actual annual membership, that's a whole other matters and I'm pretty sure that service won't support that, though the gym membership example could be a bit deceptive (there is some prepaid gym membership though, so that's not entirely deceptive).

They also allow that:

> If you want, the app will also send an actual legal notice of cancelation to the service.

It's not deceptive, it's just a super dark UX pattern.

Is a dark UX pattern not deceptive by definition?

The parent to my post was using "deceptive" as "outright lying" and I followed suit, but you're right, technically-truthful-but-misleading is deception.

> That’s not how it works

What you’re saying makes little sense for most “free trial” offers. These offers do not come with a term agreement (ie they are cancel anytime), and furthermore they are prepay. Ie you are offered a trial period and then you are billed in advance for the continuing service. So without a term agreement and prepay you’re not on the hook for anything. You just never paid, they terminate your service and that’s it.

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